KwaZulu-Natal Woman Confesses to Killing Friend’s Five-Year-Old Son to Conceal Kidnapping Plot
- Sibongile Ngwadla, a 40-year-old KwaZulu-Natal woman, explained why she chose to kill her former friend's son
- Five-year-old Ntobeko Xaba was dumped in a river in Q Section, Umlazi, a day after he was kidnapped from his home
- Ngwadla also admitted that she was friends with the boy's mother, explaining how the relationship soured
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Source: UGC
Byron Pillay, a Briefly News journalist, has dedicated a decade to reporting on the South African political landscape, crime, and social issues. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 10 years before transitioning to online.
KWAZULU-NATAL - A 40-year-old woman stood in the dock of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court and wept as the full details of how she killed a five-year-old boy were read aloud.
Sibongile Ngwadla pleaded guilty to kidnapping, attempted extortion, and murder in connection with the death of Ntobeko Xaba, who disappeared from his home in Umlazi's Q section on 22 August 2025.
Ngwadla, who was a former friend of the boy’s mother, Ntombifikile Xaba, admitted in her affidavit that she kidnapped and then killed the boy after Ntombifikile refused to assist her financially.
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Ngwadla, who lived three doors away from the mother and son, admitted that she took the five-year-old from his home and kept him at a relative's house in V section overnight. She then used a burner phone to send WhatsApp messages to his mother, demanding R60,000 for the child's safe return.
Ngwadla panicked when her plan unravelled
As police and community members launched a search for Ntobeko, Ngwadla panicked and, realising that the ransom would not be paid and fearing she was about to be caught, she decided to kill the child to hide what she had done.
She confessed that she first tried to strangle him but stopped because he began to cry. She then carried Ntobeko to a pedestrian bridge over a river in Q section and threw him in, so that he drowned.
"I threw him into the river to ensure that he drowned and was dead in order to conceal my crime. I knew that throwing him into a deep body of water would cause his death," she stated.
Afterwards, she sent a WhatsApp message to her relative falsely claiming she had returned the child and attempted to pin the blame for his death on Ntobeko's own mother.
Ngwadla fled Umlazi and was arrested on 27 August 2026. The following day, she confessed and led police to the location where she had killed the boy. Sentencing is expected on 30 July 2026.
Mom shares how her daughter was almost kidnapped
Briefly News also reported how a famous South African teacher and mother of two shared her horrific story of having her daughter almost abducted.
The mother-daughter duo were on their monthly date at a restaurant when a random man got too close to the child.
South Africans were alarmed by the kidnapping rate in the country and discussed the matter in the comments of the viral post.
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Source: Briefly News
